Scientists have described the worlds oldest-known fossil sea turtle that dates back more than 120 million years.
The ancient turtle is 25 million years older than the previous "world's oldest" turtle specimen, the Senckenberg Research Institute reported.
"The turtle described by us as Desmatochelys padillai sp. originates from Cretaceous sediments and is at least 120 million years old," said Edwin Cadena, a scholar of the Alexander von Humboldt foundation at the Senckenberg Research Institute, noting that fossil evidence from this time period is extremelt scarce. "This lends a special importance to every fossil discovery that can contribute to clarifying the phylogeny of the sea turtles."
After examining the almost-complete turtle skeleton as well as four additional skulls and two partially preserved shells, the researchers were able to place the ancient creature in the turtle group Chelonioidea based on a number of morphological features. Turtles in this group generally live in tropical and subtropical oceans and included species such as the modern Hawksbill Turtle and the Green Sea Turtle.
"Based on the animals' morphology and the sediments they were found in, we are certain that we are indeed dealing with the oldest known fossil sea turtle," Cadena said.
The fossilized sea turtle bones came from two sites near the community of Villa de Leyva in Colombia and were collected by hobby paleontologist Mary Luz Parra and her brothers Juan and Freddy Parra in the year 2007. The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal PaleoBios.
